Elliott was hoping to become a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, a title that would ultimately go to Joey Logano.
It all went wrong for the Hendrick Motorsports driver on a Lap 200 restart.
He cut down through the dogleg, as many do, but title rival Ross Chastain had the same idea. The two made contact and Elliott spun, slamming the inside wall.
He continued on and finished the race, but was no longer a threat with the damaged race car.
Elliott, who won a series-leading five races and was atop the points standings at the conclusion of the regular season, ended the race in 28th place and last among the Championship 4 drivers. Elliott has now placed fourth in the standings in back-to-back years since winning the 2020 title.
Focused on the off-season
Post-race, he didn’t have much to say about the incident.
“Yeah, I’m not sure,” said an obviously upset Elliott. “I’m not sure. Looking forward to the off-season, and really proud of our team for the fight that we put in today. I felt like we just kind of peaked right there before we crashed, and I felt like we got our car driving pretty good, we just had our best pit stop of the day, so that was all really solid. And heck, we were right there next to the 22.
“I thought we had a shot at it all the way up until we didn’t, and that’s unfortunately the way it goes sometimes.”
It seemed that the last thing on Elliott’s mind was the 2023 season.
“I don’t really care about 2023 right now,” he told reporters. “We had five wins on the season, and we had — you tell me what the stats are. That’s how you would assess it, right? I know we won five races. That’s more than we did last year.
“But do not tell me what the countdown clock is because I don’t want to know.”
He later added: “We’re going to enjoy a little time off, just like a lot of you guys are. It’s a long season. A lot of effort goes into this deal. And yeah, looking forward to that.
“I think we certainly have a target to look at as we go into next year. Yeah, when the time comes, we’ll go to work on it. But that’s not today. I can assure you that. We’re going to enjoy a little time off, just like a lot of you guys are. It’s a long season. A lot of effort goes into this deal. And yeah, looking forward to that.
“When we get back to Daytona next year, we’ll be ready to go, and we will put the focus on the things that we feel like we need to put them on and see where we stack up then. Again, 2023 is not on my radar right now.”
It was…
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